Jake Gyllenhaal Is All Muscles for Boxing Drama ‘Southpaw’

Jake Gyllenhaal has given some highly praised performances in recent years with films like End of Watch, Prisoners, and this year’s Nightcrawler. Having really enjoyed each one of those performances along with each one being well received by critics , the actor has given movie goers a different perspective on what we can expect from him. His next upcoming film titled Southpaw will be under the direction of Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer).

Southpawis a boxing drama starring Gyllenhaal as Billy “The Great” Hope,a junior middleweight champion fighter who fights for redemption, while his life outside the ring is falling apart.The film also co-stars Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, Victor Ortiz,Rachael McAdams, and 50 Cent in unspecified roles. While the release date for Southpaw has yet to be determined in 2015, a new image released (Deadline) shows Gyllenhaal in incredible boxing shape.

I didn’t hear no bell…

Director Antoine Fuqua states that Gyllenhaal trained twice a day for seven weeks for this role. The actor also turned to real life boxers, including training sessions at Floyd Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas to get in the best shape. The director also gives much praise for all the work that Gyllenhaal has given for the film, which is now in post production.

“Jake, my god, he’s a very electric, powerful fighter in this movie, and a guy who fights for his daughter. I’m confident that this will change how people see Jake as a leading man.”

History tells us that actors who go through aggressive weight transformations for their roles usually give Oscar bait performances, most of the time. Recently, Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale are proof, with their transformations for Dallas Buyers Club and The Fighter. I’ve always enjoyed Gyllenhaal performances, but the ones he’s given recently has truly shown his skills as an actor. It’s crazy how lean he looked in Nightcrawler (dropping 25 pounds), and seeing him now for Southpaw. I’m very intrigued in seeing the results from a Director-Actor combination of Antoine Fuqua and Gyllenhaal.